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Writer for Half-Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead Rejoins Valve

Maybe He’ll Breathe Half-life into the Company

Erik Wolpaw, a writer for Valve Corp who’s been on a year-long hiatus, has returned to the company. Co-founder Gabe Newell has confirmed his employment.

Wolpaw is a member of the old guard who worked on many of the titles that made Valve a renowned developer. We’re talking about the days before Steam’s takeover of the PC market and the sensation that is Dota 2. As such, his portfolio of work includes Portal, Half-life 2 episode 1 and 2, Left 4 Dead, and Portal 2. Apparently, he just returned from work with Double Fine Studios on Psychonauts.

Before Wolpaw joined Valve, he did work on the original Psychonauts back in 2005. A decade-long tenure at Valve then led to his participation on the aforementioned properties, up until Valve hit the dryest of dry spells in the realm of game development. Now that he’s back, what will he work on? It looks like his employment resumed with some work on Artifact, Valve’s new card game based on Dota 2. Spotted by Reddit user Trenchman, his name can be found in the credits.

Moreover, Trenchman sent an email to Gabe Newell, who confirmed Wolpaw’s employment. Valve News Network then did everyone a solid by checking the legitimacy of the email. Erik Wolpaw is back as a full-time employee at Valve.

I’m trying to confirm the legitimacy of this email, however according to it, Erik Wolpaw is back at Valve. The co-writer of the Half Life episodes, Portal and Portal 2. pic.twitter.com/Jy1WSIw3ZS

Now that Wolpaw is back, maybe we’ll, it may be that other renowned dev will someday return. Specifically, I mean Marc Laidlaw. Jay Pinkerton, and Chet Faliszek. What do you think will happen at Valve, now that Wolpaw is back? Comment down below.